Chapter 34
My alarm began ringing at 5am. I roll over with a groan. Hiromasa's groan echoes through the room.
"Shut up.." He groans.
"You.." I groan. I reach over and hit the snooze button. I know I normally get up now, but not today, no with only 2 hours sleep it's not enough. But it was too late, I'm already awake. I look out the window, resting my head tiredly on the pillow. The morning glow of the sun couldn't be seen yet. Hopefully when it does rise, I will feel energised. Hopefully. I close my eyes again.
Beep.. Beep.. Beep.. Bee-
"SHUT UP!" I shout, smashing the damn alarm clock.
"YOU SHUT UP!" Hiromasa shouts, followed by a snore. I sweatdrop, he's shouting in his sleep. I notice it's only been 5 minutes since the alarm last went off. I sigh, and decide to get up. Maybe some exercise will wake me up. I yawn loudly while stretching my arms. I manoeuvre my way around the junk on the floor, to my closet. I grab my spandex suit, the orange leg warmers and my headband. I then make my way to the bathroom to get changed, then just throw my pyjamas in the wash. I brush my hair, put my headband around my head and go to the kitchen. Takashi was up, standing over the bench in the dim light from the kettle, rubbing his eyes.
"Uncleee." I whine. Just looking at him like that makes me tired.
"Hmm?" He responds then picks up his glasses and cleans them with his shirt.
"I'm tired.." I complain.
"Then go back to bed." He replies, putting his glasses on with a yawn. Which of course made me yawn. After all the yawning I shake my head.
"He's too loud. I can't sleep." I say. Takashi looks over to me and has a slightly surprised look.
"Did you get any sleep last night..?" He inquires, pushing his glasses up. The kettle clicked, a sign that the water was boiled.
"A bit." I say, walking over to him. He puts his arm around my shoulders and I lean against him as he makes his cup of coffee.
"Coffee..?" He offers.
"Yes.." I reply, extending an arm out for that cup. He seemed to tired to care, so I pick it up with both hands, blow on it, then take a sip. My eyes snap wide open. I take another sip, feeling the warmth spreading through my body, warming up every muscle, energy levels rising. I just had to keep drinking more! More more!
"That's enough." He says, confiscating the cup from my hands.
"B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-but! I WANT MORE!" I shout, my eyes twitching.
"NO!" He shouts, drinking the rest quickly. I look at my arms shaking – I neeeeeeed to move around.
"BAHAHAHAHAHA!" I laugh hysterically then bolt out the door laughing. Takashi facepalms.
"Bad idea.." He groans to himself.
I run down the streets so fast I felt like I was flying. So much energy! Able to move! This suit and caffeine, I must do this every morning! I thought if I run laps around the village from the outside I might feel even more alive!
I run down the only road that leads in and out of the village. I heard a quiet mumbling as I pass one of the benches. "That's odd!" I exclaim, I then look back, seeing someone laying on one. I stop running, coming to a halt, only to trip on an uneven stone and face plant into the ground. I really need to learn how to stop in this suit. I jump to my feet feeling absolutely no pain at all, so I figure that I'm fine. I jog over to the person on the bench, only to be surprised. "Sakura-chan..? Why are you sleeping here?" I inquire loudly.
Sakura only responded with quiet words through mumbling, all I made out was a 'don't go' and a lot of 'no's.
"Sakura! Sakura! Sakura! Sakura! Sa-"
"Huh...?" She grimaces in her sleep and rubs her eyes, then suddenly sits up with a gasp and wide eyes.
"Sakura..?"
She looks around frantically then stares at her knees, looking very very depressed. Her eyes began to water.
"Sa.. Sakura-chan..?"
She bites her lip sulking quietly. "T-tch.."
I sit beside her and pat her back. "Sakura what's w-"
"Oh Setsuki-chan!" She cries, immediately clinging to me, burying her head on my shoulder. I blink with surprise of this sudden movement. Light began to appear down the path, the sun was rising. Sakura was just hysterical, getting answers out of her would be impossible. I just put my arm around her and rub her back, my leg still bouncing with energy.
"Hm? What's the problem?"
I look up seeing two men carrying very large books in a tall pile. I shrug at them.
"It's Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cries.
"Sasuke?"
"The Uchiha?" They inquire.
"What happened?" I ask. Sakura releases her grip on my suit and stares at my shoulder.
"H-he... he.. left.." She sobs. We all gasp in union.
"What to you mean he left..?" One of the men inquire.
"He left!" Sakura shouts.
"When did he leave? He couldn't have gone far right? I'll go search for him!" I exclaim, jumping to my feet. Sakura sits up holding a hand to her chest.
"Setsuki.."
"No! You mustn't! We have to report to Tsunade-sama first!" One of the men say.
"Izumo's right! You must stay here!" The other says.
"But it might be too late by then!" I say, taking off down the road. "I NEED TO RELEASE THIS ENERGY ONE WAY OR ANOTHER!" I shout back.
With absolutely no idea where I'm going, I just kept running and running.. I'm bound to find something eventually. How dare Sasuke leave the village! I found myself running right into the horizon, the run was rising the way I'm facing, it's blinding. Nonetheless I kept running as fast as my legs could carry me, it's a good thing I had that caffeine.
The sun was now well in the sky, possibly being close to 8 am, I haven't stopped running once, and I still have much energy left. "I will catch up to you Sasuke-chan!" I shout. At the scent of smoke I slow down, taking in my surroundings. I had wondered far into the forest, and I see something up ahead. I go and investigate. My eyes widen slightly at the sight. Smoke rising up from the ground, big dents in the ground. Kunais and Shurikens in the trees, small patches of blood here and there. 'Someone fought here recently.. it must be Sasuke!' I continue on, running straight ahead. I must be catching up.
A short while later, my suspicions were right. Four people walking. I did not slow down, I sped up. "OI!" I shout, two jump right, two jump left. I stop and look both ways at them. Straight away, I notice their Otogakure headbands. I send slight glares to them.
"Well this doesn't look like a Jonin.. it's just a kid." One says, a really fat one with some sort of barrel on his back.
"Kuh, we haven't time for this crap. Kill her and lets get going already!" The female beside him gushes. I tense up slightly.
"I'll do the honour." I quickly turn around, one with 6 arms was already charging at me. I get into stance.
"Don't take too long Kidomaru." The female says, the other three then jump off.
"Oi!" I shout again, but I had to block this guy first. Three arms go to punch me at once. I catch two of his fists and lean right back, bending some to avoid the last hit.
"Heh, you're so weak I wont even have to activate my curse mark." He scoffs.
"We'll see about that! HA!" I shout, still feeling full of energy. "YOSH!" I pull his arms making him fall forward, I then kick his stomach multiple times to get him up in the air.
"What..? You're fast for a kid!" He growls. I appear behind him.
"Indeed!" I exclaim, making him twitch. He looks over his shoulder. I grab his biceps on his middle arms and spin around quickly, heading for the ground. "GAI-SENSEI TAUGHT ME THIS! PRIMARY LOTUS!" I shout.
"WAH!"
I smirk and jump away to watch him smash into the ground. Within a big crash I smirk wider seeing his legs helpless dangling in the air, and his head buried somewhat underground I stand tall, victoriously. Now onto the other ones! I start running when suddenly I trip. "Ow!" I look over my shoulder seeing that guy standing on a tree branch laughing. I look over to where I thought I had buried him – a log. 'Substitution!' I jump to my feet, but I couldn't move properly. I look down and saw.. spiderweb? My eyes widen in fear and I look around frantically. I HATE SPIDERS!
"You really are pathetic." He scoffs. "I could just leave you here like that, or.." He smirks, "I could feed my little friends."
My eye twitches, and I heard a weird noise. I look around seeing the trees suddenly covered in web. I rip my foot out of it and take a step backwards. The sight before me was like my worst nightmare come to life. Hundreds, no, thousands of spiders were crawling around. I began shivering in fright.
"Feast time!" He shouts. They all rush at me. I whine inwardly. "This is what you get for chasing 'friends'!" He laughs. My eyes began to shake from fear, then suddenly a voice echoes through my head.
"Would you rather hold on to your friend and die along with him, or ditch him and save yourself?"
"Kabuto..." I look up at this 'Kidomaru'. "Not today!" I shout.
"Hmm?"
The spiders kept on closing in on me. I bite my thumb as hard as I could, and wince. Once I felt blood trickling down I quickly perform a few hand signs. "Summoning Jutsu!"
Within a puff of smoke Kea- I gasp, a really big snake, twice as big as Keahebi it's body the circumference of both my arms put together, and it's length at least three meters long.
"Kyaa! So big!" I exclaim. The snake hisses and raises it's head up to my level.
"According to the ssssituation thisss isss no time to be disssstracted SSSSetssssuki." It speaks.
"KEAHEBI!" I question. "YOU'VE ALMOST TRIPLED IN SIZE!" I exclaim. Keahebi rolls his eyes and attacks multiple spiders at once.
"Keahebi.. now where have I heard that before..." Kidomaru mumbles.
"Ahhh Kidomaru eh..? SSSSetsssuki you've got yoursssself into quite sssome trouble with thissss guy." Keahebi says.
"I don't care! I'm after Sasuke!" I say.
"The Uchiha.. I sssee. I'll help you with thissss fight." Keahebi says.
"As if a measly snake can help you!" Kidomaru mocks. I then begin to pick up on fatigue in his voice, is he.. hiding a pant?
"Keahebi, I think he's tired, we should be able to beat him while he's down!" I say. I blink. "Keahebi?" I look around for him. I notice an oversized jumping spider coming right for my face. "AAAHHHHH!" Keahebi's head comes out of nowhere and swallows the spider in one go.
"You need to be more careful." He says.
"BUT I HATE SPIDERS!" I whine.
"He'sss gone..!" Keahebi exclaims, looking up to the branch.
"Wha-" A heavy punch to my cheek sends me flying off the ground into a tree, I hit my head hard against it and slide down in pain. I clench my teeth and hold my head with one hand, the other hand on the ground for support. I look up, Kidomaru was headed straight for me. I taste blood in my mouth and spit it out. I move quickly enough to dodge the punch. I suddenly felt a pain in my arms, in fact, my whole body. I could barely do anything but stand on on the spot.
"What happened?" Keahebi questions.
"I.. don't know.." I reply, wincing.
"Heh.. seems that last technique you performed hurt your body hm?" Kidomaru sniggers.
I gasp slightly. 'That's right! Gai-sensei told me the Primary Lotus has a temporary downfall on the user's body.. dammit! Why didn't I think of that before I used it?' I stood there panting, struggling to move.
"SSSSetsssuki, can you move..?"
"N-no.." I reply regrettably. Kidomaru cackles.
"And you challenged me? Pathetic!" Kidomaru says.
"I'll cover for you for now.." Keahebi says, slithering around my feet, then raising his head to my stomach-height, facing Kidomaru ready to strike.
They fought until my body recovered and I could move again, even though it was still kind of painful, perhaps I pulled a muscle by mistake. Kidomaru kept jumping around the trees, like he was trying to get Keahebi stuck. But it wasn't working. I jump up when he wasn't expecting it.
"Dynamic Entry!" I shout, kicking Kidomaru's shoulder, pounding him into the ground. This time, it was the real Kidomaru. I stood back panting.
"Little brat.." Kidomaru gushes, pulling himself up. Suddenly orange-colored marks spread across half his body, and once they stop moving, they fade to black.
With an evil smirk, he was back on his feet. I get an overconfident look. "I can still.. win!" I exclaim, then pant.
"Ha." Was his only reply. He suddenly disappeared. I blink a few times and look in every direction.
"Where'd he g-" I felt something heavy hit my head. "GAH!" I fall to the ground, like I was paralysed in pain.
"SSSetsssuki!" Keahebi calls.
"And you thought you could defeat me? One of the sound four? Heh."
I slowly began to feel cold, and the stinging from my head was almost unbearable. But I couldn't move. I close my eyes tightly, beginning to feel numb and slowly.. slowly.. things went dark..